Michael Grimm
Michael Grimm was a singer and guitarist act on Season 5 of JayGT. He was eliminated in 7th place. Michael will return for JayGT: Battle of Finalists and for a third time to JayGT: The Champions II. Background Michael Grimm was raised in the swamplands of Hancock County, Mississippi by his loving grandparents. “They made us go to church a lot,” he says of his grandparents, who raised Grimm and his sister after their parents’ divorce. That’s when he turned to music, as a five-year old. His grandmother played piano in a Baptist church built by her father, who was a preacher. Outside of church however, his grandparents were true Country Music fans. As a 12-year-old, Michael Grimm was escorted by his Grandma to the local southern Mississippi bars where he would perform the songs of George Jones, Travis Tritt and other Country artists. “She’d sit in the bars with her glass of soda and watch over me because she loved to listen to me sing, and she thought that was the way to get my career started,” Grimm says. Blending the two genres, Grimm was writing music and playing guitar as a 15-year-old and signing a recording contract at 16. One album was cut. “Most of the songs would be considered Positive Country Christian, because I came from that background,” Grimm says. Still his Nashville career didn’t take off, Christian Country Music just wasn’t that big then. The door had closed and Grimm returned home only to have his high school sweetheart leave him. Grimm spent the next two years in Mississippi, heartbroken and drinking in bars. “I learned what heartache was for the first time in my life, and that’s when I got turned on to Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin.” Says Grimm “After I heard them, I never went back to Country. I went through a transition and became a soul singer, which happened so naturally I really didn’t see it coming.” In the years since, Grimm’s tastes have evolved from Country music to Southern Soul – while moving from the swamps of Mississippi to the deserts of Las Vegas, where he is fortunate enough to keep a busy schedule playing in clubs from one end of the valley to the other. Grimm emerged from extremely humble beginnings to become a singing, songwriting and guitar-playing triple-threat of talent. Fans appreciate that he reached into his heart and sang with pure passion and soul. Over the years Grimm has opened and toured for the likes of BB King, The Doobie Brothers, the rock group Heart and most recently Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers. After several years of hard work on his sound, Grimm arrives now with a huge catalog of meticulously crafted songs and a mature, soulful delivery unmatched by anyone on the market today. Michael Grimm is determined to keep real music alive while continuously trying to realize his dream to make it and to give back to his Grandparents for all they have given him. http://www.facebook.com/MichaelGrimmMusic/info Audition Michael Grimm's audition in Episode 501 consisted of singing "You Don't Know Me" while playing the guitar. Category:Acts Category:Male Singers Category:Instrumentalists Category:Season 5 Acts Category:Season 5 Male Singers Category:Season 5 Instrumentalists Category:AGT Winners Category:Michael Bolton Disciples Category:Accepted Acts Category:Season 5 Accepted Acts Category:Golden Buzzer Acts Category:Season 5 Golden Buzzer Acts Category:Smack's Golden Buzzers Category:Quarterfinalists Category:Season 5 Quarterfinalists Category:Semifinalists Category:Season 5 Semifinalists Category:Instant Save Category:Finalists Category:Season 5 Finalists Category:7th Place Category:Acts Appearing in Multiple Seasons Category:BoF Acts Category:BoF Male Singers Category:BoF Instrumentalists Category:Threepeaters Category:TC 2 Acts Category:TC 2 Male Singers Category:TC 2 Instrumentalists